Optical sensors are used for a wide variety of imaging purposes. An optical sensor, such as a linear sensor, may have multiple sensor elements, each of which captures a portion of the light information of an object or scene of interest. The manufacture of optical sensors may require a non-active gap between these sensor elements. The non-active gap is a portion of the optical sensor that can not detect an optical signal. In one example, linear arrays of distinct red, green and blue light capturing sensor elements are separated by a linear area, the non-active gap, where the combined sensor is not capable of capturing an optical signal.
Similarly, optical sensors with one optical sensor element may be used collectively with other such sensors to form a larger combined sensor. In such cases, non-active gaps will typically exist between the sensor elements of neighboring sensors.
For many applications that rely upon a predictable rate and distance of subject movement, such as, for example, a color imaging scanner, the size of a non-active gap does not create difficulty in the recording of subjects and subsequent accurate replay of images. However, for subjects that are dynamic or moving with unpredictable speed and/or distance relative to the sensor, this non-active gap can cause the inaccurate recording of an object or scene and result in a significant loss of image fidelity.